I am a property owner in Oklahoma with both surface and mineral ownership. A “water service” company has laid a 10” aluminum irrigation pipe in the ditch within the property boundaries, i.e., to the middle of the road. Since I pay taxes on this property to the middle of the road, how can they use my surface, for their own purposes without permission or compensation? They told me they paid the county for “road crossings”, but still failed to get my permission to lay their pipe in the ditch. It would seem that permission must be granted not only by the county, but the surface owner as well. Is there any case history and law to back me up on this issue? There are no provisions in any leases that allow any of this activity.
It is my understanding, Sen. Bryce Marlatt (Woodward) and Mike Jackson (Enid), made attempts within the last year to pass legislation whereby they didn’t have to get permission or compensate the surface owner for such use. It appears obvious who butters their bread!
Not only do they leave trash along the roads, they run their pipes through culverts restricting the water flow and making storm water go over the road.
Any comments or suggestions would be most helpful.
You share to the middle of the road an easement. Your fence line is usually the easement border.
Maxine, in Oklahoma the easement is for roadway. The defeat of the Senate Bill Allow Oil Companies to Use the County Road Easement for Temporary Water Lines Without Getting Landowner Permission or Paying the Landowner for the Use (SB1812 Marlatt/Jackson) was discussed in the Legislative Update to the membership at the OK-NARO annual convention in April. This is the link to the powerpoint presentation http://www.naro-us.org/Resources/Documents/2014%20OK-NARO%20COSMO.pdf . See page 7.
Just one of the reasons every mineral owner (with enough minerals to care about) should support NARO with their membership, in my opinion.
Thanks for your input, Wesley. Yes, I agree NARO is and shall continue to be an important tool for protecting the land owner and mineral owner’s interests. Collectively, we can better represent our situations before the system bureaucracy. All too often we anger from our plight with the oil companies, fatigue from wrangling with the county commissioners over safe road conditions, and find ourselves adjusting to the broken down infrastructure (both our farms and our roads) left as a result of the oil activity. Hopefully, enough individuals become motivated to collectively develop a governing difference instead of reluctantly tolerating an abusive environment for the local land, mineral, and resident to the oil development.
Wesley Skinner said:
Maxine, in Oklahoma the easement is for roadway. The defeat of the Senate Bill Allow Oil Companies to Use the County Road Easement for Temporary Water Lines Without Getting Landowner Permission or Paying the Landowner for the Use (SB1812 Marlatt/Jackson) was discussed in the Legislative Update to the membership at the OK-NARO annual convention in April. This is the link to the powerpoint presentation http://www.naro-us.org/Resources/Documents/2014%20OK-NARO%20COSMO.pdf . See page 7.
Just one of the reasons every mineral owner (with enough minerals to care about) should support NARO with their membership, in my opinion.